In this week’s spotlight: Montana State University and Daan van Dijk! The tennis talent from Bergen, who is already in 122nd place in the Dutch rankings, plays the highest level of Dutch competition, has always been with the top players of his age and became part of the Montana State Bobcats last week!

A great new step in the tennis and school career of this hard worker. He chose Montana State University in 2020, after he visited the campus and met with his coach and team mates. Below Daan explains why he chose MSU:

“I chose Montana State University because coach Trey and I have the same vision for the team’s future and my personal development. Another advantage is the beautiful environment in Bozeman and the opportunity to play in a team full of great guys!”
Daan van Dijk – Student-athlete

The MSU Bobcats Men’s Tennis team is proud and enthusiastic about the arrival of Daan in the team. They wrote this article about it. Go Cats go!

Do you want to know more about Daan’s university in Bozeman, Montana? Read more!

The Campus

MSU is the largest university in the state of Montana, spread over 470 acres. In comparison: that’s almost 1000 soccer fields together! Every year, nearly 17,000 students come to play sports, study and, above all, have fun on those thousand footballs on campus. The campus was founded in 1893 as a school specifically focused on agriculture. The number of students at the time? 8! Bizarre isn’t it?! The campus looks super nice, see the location of MSU below!

Currently, approximately 4,200 students stay on campus in the student buildings, of which about 70% are freshmen. There is a total of 12 student clubs active that help students with all kinds of different things, but also organize fun events. This makes the campus a place for everyone!

The MSU campus has a number of great sports facilities, the Bobcats must be well looked after of course!

  • The largest stadium at the university is the ‘Bobcat Stadium’, it can seat 17,000 spectators. Skyboxes, a stadium club and press room can also be found in the stadium. The atmosphere is great! Check out the stadium in the picture below
  • The ‘Brick Breeden Fieldhouse’ is another special facility on campus, it is the central point for the Bobcats. Events are organized, including concerts of a seriously large scale. Basketball and track and field competitions are also held. Check out the Fieldhouse below, cool right?!
  • Another part of the campus is MSU’s ski facility, a facility that not every university has to its name! The university’s Alpine & Nordic teams feature one of the best locations in the country to train all season: The Big Sky Region in Bozeman. It is also home to the sport’s next NCAA championships.

Special parts of the beautiful campus in Montana, but there is much more to see! Are you curious about this? Check out the MSU facility page!

Athletics

The MSU Bobcats is what the university’s varsity teams are called. There are a total of 15 varsity teams with 350 student athletes, including Daan! The teams compete within NCAA Division 1 in the Big Sky Conference. MSU’s biggest rival is the University of Montana ‘Grizzlies’. Both have been members of the Big Sky conference for years, every match between the two schools is exciting and well attended!

The university has already won several national championships, most of which have been won by the Rodeo team! A special sport within the student athlete landscape. The American Football team also managed to win the title 3 times and the male basketball team also has 1 title to their name.

The university colors are blue and gold and the university mascot is called ‘Champ’. You can see him in the photo on the right. Champ, together with the Spirit Squad, ensures that there is enough atmosphere at every sports match. In addition, the Fight Song below is sung aloud by everyone in the audience. When a match is played in the Bobcat Stadium, that could be 17,000 people singing!

“Stand up and cheer,
Cheer long and loud for dear Montana State
For today we raise
The blue and gold to wave victorious
Our sturdy band now is fighting
And we are sure to win the fray
We’ve got the vim, we’re here to win
For this is dear Montana State!”

Rodeo, a college sport that we don’t see often. MSU has a long history within this sport of which they are proud. The university has been organizing the College National Finals Rodeo tournament for 30 years. The Bobcats have won 8 national titles, 32 individual titles and multiple regional titles within the Big Sky competition.

Click here to watch the cool video that MSU made in 2017 for the 125th anniversary of the university. It shows the sports atmosphere at the university!

Do you want to see more about sports at MSU? Check out the athletic website!

Academics

MSU offers 51 bachelor’s degrees, 41 master’s degrees and 18 doctoral courses. Whut?! Yep, really. The main categories within the school program are as follows:

  • College of Agriculture
  • College of Arts and Architecture
  • College of Business
  • College of Education, Health & Human Development
  • College of Engineering
  • College of Letters and Science
  • College of Nursing

You can find the whole list with majors here.

We have listed a number of quick facts about the university for you here. Did you know …

  • That the average GPA on MSU is 3.57?
  • That the average ACT score on MSU is 25?
  • That the average SAT score on MSU is 1234?
  • That almost 7,000 students attend the university every year, of which 350 are student athletes?

Would you like to study at MSU, just like Daan? Or do you want to know more about the life of a student athlete? Reach out!